Norman Hilton tweed suit

[AlanC]

I picked up this bulletproof brown Norman Hilton tweed suit yesterday. It's a 3/2 sack, flat front trousers. The inseam and sleeve length are perfect for me. Just in time for spring!

$7 (It was 30% off)

 

[Jovan]

That's quite a steal, though I'll never know the fascination with sack suits.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... I'll never know the fascination with sack suits.

They're not my cup of tea, either, though Norman Hilton suits are well made. Sack suits do look okay on some (stocky) body types. The point of the sack suit is to hide the body, rather than accentuate it. Think old school New England puritan. Or better yet, don't: it's too scary.

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[Fletch]

Nice. Norman doesn't do just sack coats, either. My favorite tweed jacket is a Norman made about 1994 in a slightly suppressed, ventless 3B, 3-to-button, with a padded shoulder. Very vintage-esque silhouette.

 

[AlanC]

Dartless does not necessarily mean poor fit and no waist suppression. Hilton particularly was good about waist suppression. I have an old Brooks tweed with good waist suppression, too.

I'm not a 3/2 sack purist (I like darts, too), but I do like them.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Absolutely ... Norman Hilton is a very good make.

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[AlanC]

Not wanting to turn this into a debate on the sack, but here's an earlier pic of me in the Brooks sack tweed:

 

[Marc Chevalier]

The sack suit has earned its reputation as a classic. Its cut and fabrics have hardly changed since the 1920s. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edmund Wilson, John O'Hara and the Dulles brothers -- among many other Ivy League types -- wore sack suits from their teenage years until their deaths.


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[Fletch]

The biggest change - not materially big, but stylistically huge - was the elimination of the high roll lapel option and the re-engineering of the lapel to discourage use of the top button. Since the '70s, a "traditional" sack suit means one where buttoning to the top will pucker the coat front and ruin the look. Even buttoned to the middle, also tends to look flat and un-elegant unless the coat fits very well (as AlanC's does).

Before this "feature", and while the 6 button vest was still permissible, the sack look WAS pretty much timeless. Now it's been adapted to a purpose: clothes for men who want to look like they don't care about their clothes.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

The biggest change - not materially big, but stylistically huge - was the elimination of the high roll lapel option and the re-engineering of the lapel to discourage use of the top button.

It's interesting you should mention that. I've seen photos of Ivy Leaguers from as early as the 1910s wearing sack suit jackets with the lapel rolled down to the middle button. It seems to have been a Princeton/Yale fashion that stuck with preppies as they aged. I've also seen sack suits (Brooks Brothers, Chipp, Rogers Peet) from the 1920s-1950s that had the top buttonhole "finished" on both sides, so that the owner could wear it buttoned -- or rolled over and unbuttoned, as the preppies preferred it.


Beginning in the later 1960s, sack suits appeared with the top buttonhole finished only on the rolled side. By then, the lapels were made to not be buttoned to the top.


WEIRD ANECDOTE: A thrift store near me has the jacket of a 1954 Brooks Brothers suit that was custom made for someone. It has surgeon's cuffs, a boutonniere loop behind the lapel, and -- ready for this? -- a four-button front. Beautiful wool. Pure satin silk lining.

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[AlanC]

The biggest change - not materially big, but stylistically huge - was the elimination of the high roll lapel option and the re-engineering of the lapel to discourage use of the top button. Since the '70s, a "traditional" sack suit means one where buttoning to the top will pucker the coat front and ruin the look. Even buttoned to the middle, also tends to look flat and un-elegant unless the coat fits very well (as AlanC's does).

Before this "feature", and while the 6 button vest was still permissible, the sack look WAS pretty much timeless. Now it's been adapted to a purpose: clothes for men who want to look like they don't care about their clothes.

I agree that the sack can be worn sloppily, and perhaps the cut does lend itself to that. At the same time, a lot of men wear modern Men's Wearhouse/S&K whatevers with darts, etc and look like they don't care about their clothes, too.

I agree with you about the fold over lapel issue. In my experience Norman Hilton does a better roll/belly on the lapel than most. I have a Norman Hilton tweed sportcoat that rolls beautifully. Some 3/2 lapels are also the victim of dry cleaners who like to put creases in lapels; they would be helped with proper application of a good steamer.